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| Information about the International Travel and Migration |
Availability
| Valid From: .. | 04/01/1921 |
| To: .. | Ongoing |
| Frequency: .. | Monthly |
Design
Purpose: To provide timely statistics on the number of people travelling to and from New Zealand, and the characteristics of those people. As the principal agency responsible for processing and publishing international travel and migration statistics in New Zealand, Statistics New Zealand seeks to provide information that meets the contractual, public policy and community requirements for up-to-date official statistics at the local, regional and national level.
General Information ..International travel and migration statistics relate to the number of passenger movements, rather than to the number of people (i.e. the multiple movements of individual people during a given reference period are each counted separately).
Before September 1997, international travel and migration statistics were captured only from arrival and departure cards completed by travellers. From September 1997, New Zealand Customs Service began supplying Statistics New Zealand with electronic data for all arrivals and departures on a daily basis, in addition to providing all arrival and departure cards. The electronic information includes details about each flight (airline, route, etc.) or sea movement and, for each passenger on the flight or sea movement, details from the person's passport such as the passport number, country of citizenship, sex, and date of birth. This data is receipted automatically by Statistics New Zealand and, where possible, arrival and departure records are matched (using the passport details) so both legs of a person's journey are linked. Where records can be linked, the passenger type for the second journey will often be automatically determined based on the first journey - if the first was a visitor arrival, the second will be a visitor departure; if the first was a New Zealand resident departure, the second will be a New Zealand resident arrival. The linking also allows accurate measurement of length of absence for New Zealand resident arrivals.
Until May 2004, passenger type had to be manually determined if it had not been automatically determined from linked records. Additional information (such as country of next/last permanent residence, travel purpose, etc.) was also captured manually, where required.
From June 2004, Statistics New Zealand has used scanning and image recognition technology to automatically capture and code information from arrival and departure cards. Approximately one-tenth of records cannot be automatically completed by the imaging system, and the remaining information needed is captured by manual processing. The new system is designed to capture the same information as was captured previously, but in a more efficient manner. The system is used only for the production of statistics.
Passenger Type
Arriving and departing passengers are divided into three groups – overseas visitors, New Zealand resident travellers and permanent and long-term migrants – which are referred to as passenger types. The passenger type is generally determined by responses to the questions on the arrival and departure cards about where the person lives, and their length of stay or absence.
- Overseas visitor arrivals - are overseas residents arriving in New Zealand for an intended stay of less than 12 months
- Overseas visitor departures - are overseas residents departing New Zealand after a stay of less than 12 months
- New Zealand resident departures - are New Zealand residents departing New Zealand for an intended absence of less than 12 months
- New Zealand resident arrivals - are New Zealand residents arriving in New Zealand after an absence of less than 12 months
- Permanent and long-term arrivals - include overseas migrants who arrive in New Zealand intending to stay for a period of 12 months or more (or permanently), plus New Zealand residents returning after an absence of 12 months or more
- Permanent and long-term departures - include New Zealand residents departing for an intended period of 12 months or more (or permanently), plus overseas visitors departing New Zealand after a stay of 12 months or more.
Current Arrival and Departure Cards
Note that small changes are often made to arrival and departure cards. The cards shown here are not necessarily the latest version, but will be broadly similar.
Arrival Card: See the New Zealand Customs Service website: http://www.customs.govt.nz/library/form/Passenger+Arrival+Forms/default.htm. The English version of the card must be completed. The arrival cards is provided in other languages, but only to assist with the completion of the English version.
Departure Card  .
Previous Arrival and Departure Cards
Arrival Card (mid-1999–mid-2010)
Arrival Card (prior to August 1999)
Departure Card (prior to August 2000)
More detailed information and historical cards are stored in the Statistics New Zealand library system, file PD 4 16.
Output Variables
Output variables are pieces of individual information that can be extracted from the survey/output data. Often output variables can be cross tabulated with other output variables, for example sales by industry classification. The list below contains all current and past output variables which have been released for this survey/output.
| Variable Name | Description |
| Citizenship | Country of citizenship as on passport |
| Age | Age (in years) at time of travel, derived from date of birth |
| Sex | Male or female |
| Occupation | Usual occupation + |
 | |
| Period | Day, month and year of movement. |
| Passenger Type | This divides arrivals and departures into one of three groups:
- overseas visitors
- New Zealand resident travellers
- permanent and long-term migrants.
Also called passenger class. |
| Visa Type | The type of immigration visa held or granted on arrival.*+ Not applicable for New Zealand citizens and Australian citizens. |
| Travel Purpose | The main purpose for visiting New Zealand*, or visiting another country#. Also called reason for travel. |
| Length of Stay/Absence | The intended length of time in New Zealand*, or intended/actual length of time absent from New Zealand#. |
| Country of Main Destination | The country the person intends to spend the most time in while overseas.# |
| Country of Last Permanent Residence | The country where a person last lived for a period of 12 months or more.*+ |
| Country of Next Permanent Residence | The country where a person next intends to live for 12 months or more.*+ |
| State of Last Permanent Residence | The state (for Australia and US), county (England and Scotland), prefecture (Japan), or province (China and Canada) where a person lives.* |
| Country of Birth | The person's country of birth |
| New Zealand Port of Embarkation/Disembarkation | The New Zealand port where the passenger was processed by Customs |
| Port of Embarkation/Disembarkation | The overseas port where the passenger got on/will get off the flight. |
| New Zealand Area of Residence | The New Zealand territorial authority (city/district) of last/next residence. +# |
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| Carrier | The airline carrying a person between ports. |
| Air Route | For arrivals, the route consists of the overseas port that the flight started from, other overseas ports travelled through since that port, and the first port of arrival in New Zealand. For departures, the route consists of the final overseas port of the flight, overseas ports travelled through before reaching that port, and the last New Zealand port of departure. Prior to April 2000 only one through port was captured, this being the closest to New Zealand. |
| Travel Mode | Mode of travel in/out of New Zealand (air, sea cruise or sea other). |
| Zip code | The overseas zip or postal code of residence.* Countries of residence that this is captured for vary over time. |
* Overseas visitors only.
+ Permanent and long-term migrants only.
# New Zealand residents only.
Changes in Output Variables over time
Guide to Interpreting Data
Summary of Changes to Survey/Output ..On 1 September 1997, the New Zealand Customs Service began supplying data electronically for all arrivals and departures. On the same date Statistics NZ began storing international travel and migration data using Sybase database software. The Sybase database contains information for every individual passenger movement since that date. Series of actual counts for each passenger type (in addition to rated up sample totals) are now published.
In December 1998, the mainframe computer systems ceased to be used at Statistics NZ. Output data is now stored on TSM and Supercross.
On 1 August 1999, a new arrival card, "New Zealand Passenger Arrival Card" was introduced to replace both the previous "New Zealand Arrival Card" and the "Customs/Quarantine Declaration Card".
On 1 August 2000, a new departure card, "New Zealand Passenger Departure Card" was introduced to replace the previous "New Zealand Departure Card".
In June 2004, Statistics New Zealand began using scanning and image-recognition technology to automatically capture most of the required information from arrival and departure cards.
In October 2005, the rules used to determine passenger type within the imaging part of the international travel and migration processing system were improved. This increased the number of records automatically assigned a passenger type by imaging, and halved the number of records needing manual completion.
In August 2007, an improved procedure for automatically matching records to previous journeys of the same person (using passport details) was implemented. This led to small improvements in the quality of the passenger type and length of stay/absence variables.
In July 2008, the name 'International Travel and Migration' was adopted, replacing 'External Migration' which had been used since 1921. The new name was chosen to better reflect that the statistics included short-term travellers as well as permanent and long-term migrants.
In June 2010, a new arrival card was introduced. It differed from the previous card in its orientation (portrait rather than landscape) and added questions asking for the passengers e-mail, phone number and seat number. The additional detail is not captured by Statistics NZ.
Usage and Limitations of the Data ..Population Estimates
Population Projections
Monitoring changes to the New Zealand workforce
Monitoring immigration policy
Monitoring airport usage
Bilateral air route negotiations
Provides weightings for the International Visitor Survey
Balance of Payments
Related Data Sources ..Accommodation Survey
Tourism Satellite Account
International Visitors Survey (Ministry of Economic Development)
Domestic Travel Survey (Ministry of Economic Development)
Regional Visitor Monitor (Ministry of Economic Development)
Sampling Errors ..Sampling History
Sampling of arrivals and departures was first introduced in April 1975, for both short-term travellers (ie overseas visitors and New Zealand resident travellers) and permanent and long-term migrants. For the first year there was a 50 percent sample and during the next three years a 25 percent sample. In July 1979, permanent and long-term migrants ceased to be sampled, and details have been captured for every permanent and long-term migrant since.
Arrival and departure cards for short-term travellers have continued to be systematically sampled since 1975 (sampling of every 1 in k cards is termed systematic sampling). The sampling interval k gradually increased from 2 to 4 to 6 as the volume of cards increased. In June 1987 a differential sampling scheme was introduced, whereby the sample interval varied monthly. There were 3 main features to this:
(a) A sampling interval was calculated each month, based on a forecast of the number of short-term travellers.
(b) The sampling interval was calculated to achieve a sample size of around 27,000 short-term travellers each month to maintain an even workload during the year.
(c) The use of a random start point for the sample meant the systematic sample could be regarded as random.
The sampling was altered in April 1994 (when the processing system began to be computerised) so that the systematic sample for overseas visitor arrivals was done within each country of residence. In addition, the sampling was carried out within each flight or ship movement, and independently by each operator.
The current sampling regime was adopted when a new LAN-based processing system was introduced in 1997:
(a) The within-country sample is chosen from all flights and ship movements (rather than within each individual flight or ship movement).
(b) Different sampling intervals are used for each passenger type and direction:
visitor arrivals: k-4
NZ resident departures: k
visitor departures: k+6
NZ resident arrivals: k+6
The value of k is generally at its highest level in January and lowest in May, due to seasonal differences in the number of short-term travellers. In 2005, the sampling interval, k, was 33 in January and 23 in May (and also June).
Percentage of Arrival and Departure Cards:. It is aimed to sample approximately 27,000 short-term passenger movements every month. Given that the number of travellers is increasing almost every year, the result is a smaller percentage of the arrival and departure cards being sampled over time. The following graph shows the percentage of the arrival and departure cards sampled each month since January 1987.
The percentage of arrival and departure cards sampled in the first five months of 1987 was around 16.7%, and then dropped markedly. In February 2006, the percentage of cards sampled was 3.7%.
Sampling Errors
The tables below give an indication of the level of sampling error in data for short-term (less than 12 months) travellers in monthly international travel and migration statistics. Statistics for permanent and long-term (12 months or more) migrants have no sampling error.
Sampling errors measure the variability that arises because the entire population has not been surveyed. Thus, there will be different magnitudes of sampling errors with different samples. Sampling errors are calculated at a particular confidence level - in this case 95%. This means that if we took repeated samples , we would expect that on 95% of occasions the true population value falls between the sample estimate plus the absolute sampling error, and the sample estimate minus the absolute sampling error.
Absolute Sampling Error = 
Thus, sampling errors in international travel and migration are dependent on the proportion of the arrival and departure cards sampled in a particular month (expressed in terms of the Sampling Interval - SI); the size of the cell of interest (e.g. the number of male Japanese visitor arrivals, or departures of New Zealand residents aged over 60); and the total population size for a group (e.g. visitor arrivals from Japan; New Zealand resident departures).
Errors are also sometimes presented in relative terms. Relative sample errors give a percentage measure of the magnitude of the error, obtained by dividing the absolute sample error by the size of the cell of interest and multiplying the result by 100.
Relative Sampling Error =
The nature of the international travel and migration sampling scheme means that the total group estimates (e.g. total visitor arrivals by country, total New Zealand resident departures) have no sampling error. This is because these figures are taken directly from counts of cards rather than estimated from the sample.
The tables in this report are for sampling errors for estimates which are for subgroups of one of the groups of short-term travellers. An estimate of the sampling error for a cell which covers a range of countries (e.g. visitors from Asia who are aged over 60) is obtained by an alternative method. The size of this type of error cannot be summarised easily in a general table as the sampling error is a combination of the errors across the different countries, and will depend on the mix of countries. Similarly, if yearly counts or month to month changes are of interest, then there will also be associated sampling errors. The calculation of these is more complex and further information can be obtained from the Statistical Methods business unit of Statistics New Zealand.
Tables A, B, C and D below give the ranges of absolute and relative sampling errors for different cell sizes and population sizes of interest. Tables A and B are valid for overseas visitor arrivals, and Tables C and D are valid for New Zealand resident departures (and arrivals).
When calculating the sampling error for an estimate that is a subgroup of visitors from an individual country, the population is the total visitor arrivals for that country. On the other hand, when calculating sampling error for estimates which are subgroups of New Zealand resident departures (or arrivals), the population is the number of all New Zealand resident departures(or arrivals), respectively. For short-term arrivals and departures, the magnitude of error, for a given combination of cell size and population size, varies as the sample interval varies for different months. To illustrate this, sample intervals of 19 and 29 (visitors), and 23 and 33 (New Zealand residents) are presented in the tables. These represent the respective sampling intervals for the systematic samples of visitor arrivals, and New Zealand resident departures, in June and December 2005.
Examples of how the changes in population size and cell size impact on the sampling error are given below.
Overseas Visitor – Short-term Arrivals (Sampling Interval = 29):
[Total Population = 20,000 (Visitor Arrivals from the United States); Cell size of interest = 5,000]
Suppose there were 20,000 visitors who arrived in New Zealand from the United States in a particular month of whom 5,000 were from California. The range for the true number of California visitors could be as large as 4,365 (5,000-635) to 5,635 (5,000+635). This is calculated at the 95% confidence level.
The error component of 635 is obtained from Table A, under the sampling interval of 29, at the intersection of 20,000 as total population and 5,000 as cell size of interest. From Table B it can be seen that the magnitude of the relative error is about 13%.
[Population size = 1,000; Cell size of interest = 100]
Let us present a smaller cell scenario. Suppose that, in a particular month, there were 1,000 visitors from Brazil (total population) of whom 100 (cell size of interest) visited New Zealand with the purpose of visiting their friends and relatives. In this situation, the range for the true number of people arriving from Brazil with this particular purpose, at the 95% confidence level, could be as large as 2 to 198. The absolute error of 98 is obtained from Table A.
New Zealand Resident – Short-term Departures (Sampling Interval = 33):
[Total Population = 100,000 (New Zealand Resident Departures); Cell size of interest = 5,000]
Suppose 100,000 New Zealand residents left for a short-term overseas trip, of whom 5,000 intended to visit Fiji. In that case, the range for the true number of New Zealand residents who visited Fiji, at the 95% confidence interval, could be as large as 4,236 (5000-764) to 5,764 (5000+764). The absolute error of 764 is obtained from Table C (under sampling interval of 33). From Table D it can be seen that the magnitude of the relative error is about 15%.
[Total Population = 100,000; Cell size of interest = 500]
In another scenario, suppose that 500 of the New Zealand resident departures had a main destination of Italy. In that case, the interval for the true number of New Zealand residents who visited Italy could be 253 (500-247) to 747 (500+247). In other words, if we were to take many different samples then 95% of the time we are confident that the true number will fall in the range 253 to 747.
It is also clear from Tables A and C that, if the sampling interval increases (i.e. a smaller sample is drawn from the same population size), then for the same cell size of interest the range for the true number of people will also increase. From Tables B and D, we can see that, for a given population size and sample interval, the relative sample error increases as the cell size decreases. Therefore, extra caution should be taken when presenting or interpreting the data with smaller cell sizes.
Non-sampling errors It should be recognised that any estimate will also have a non-sampling error component, which is generally difficult to measure. In the case of international travel and migration statistics, this component could result from factors such as non-response, incorrect responses on arrival/departure cards, language difficulties, processing errors, or a person changing their travel intentions after completing the arrival or departure card.
In the preparation of international travel and migration statistics, the passenger type (overseas visitor, New Zealand resident traveller or permanent and long-term migrant) is primarily determined by the passenger's response, on the arrival or departure card, to the questions on where they live and their length of stay or absence. If the person's intention changes later during the trip, this passenger type may no longer be correct, e.g. a person may come to New Zealand with the declared intention of settling permanently, but in fact may return overseas after a few months.
In 1995, New Zealand Customs Service and the New Zealand Immigration Service (now Immigration New Zealand) negotiated an agreement covering the collection of arrival and departure cards. The agreement specified that Customs were to check only certain questions on the cards - principally passport and flight numbers. Previously, Customs had checked the whole card. As a result of this, non-response rates increased between 1995 and 1996 for a number of variables.
Caveats on Release ..In the preparation of international travel and migration statistics, the passenger type (overseas visitor, New Zealand resident traveller or permanent and long-term migrant) is primarily determined by the passenger's response, on the arrival or departure card, to the questions on where they live and their length of stay or absence. If the person's intention changes later during the trip, this passenger type may no longer be correct, e.g. a person may come to New Zealand with the declared intention of settling permanently, but in fact may return overseas after a few months.
Detailed breakdowns for short-term travellers (overseas visitors and New Zealand resident travellers) are generally derived from a sample of records, and therefore may contain sampling error. See the Sampling Errors section for more detail.
Customised Output
Variables Captured by Passenger Type
Below is a table showing the key international travel and migration variables currently captured. Not all are included in regular outputs.
'100%' indicates that this variable is captured for every record, while 'sample' indicates that the variable is only captured for sampled records. The variables captured can change over time.
| Variable | Arrivals | Departures |
Overseas visitors | New Zealand resident travellers | Permanent and long-term migrants | Overseas visitors | New Zealand resident travellers | Permanent and long-term migrants |
| Passport Number * | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Date of Movement * | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Direction of Movement * | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Travel Mode * | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Carrier * | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| New Zealand Port * | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Air Route * | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Citizenship * | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Date of Birth * | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Sex * | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Visa Type * | 100% | | 100% | | | |
| Passenger Type | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Length of Stay/Absence | sample | sample | | | sample | |
| Country of Last/Next Permanent Residence | 100% | | 100% | sample | | 100% |
| Country of Main Destination | | | | | sample | |
| Country of Birth | sample | sample | 100% | sample | sample | 100% |
| Travel Purpose | sample | sample | | | sample | |
| Overseas Port of Embarkation/Disembarkation | sample | sample | 100% | sample | sample | 100% |
| New Zealand Area of Residence | | | 100% | | sample | 100% |
| Occupation | | | 100% | | | 100% |
| Overseas State of Residence | sample ^ | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| * From electronic record | | | | | | |
| ^ For selected countries of residence only | | | | | | |
Catalogue & Reference Numbers
Other Comments
Classification(s) used
Glossary of Terms
| Term | Description |
| |
| Migration | To move from one place (e.g. country) to another. |
| Overseas Visitor Arrivals | Overseas residents arriving in New Zealand for an intended stay of less than 12 months. |
| New Zealand Resident Arrivals | New Zealand residents arriving in New Zealand after an absence of less than 12 months. |
| Overseas Visitor Departures | Overseas residents departing New Zealand after a stay of less than 12 months. |
| New Zealand Resident Departures | New Zealand residents departing New Zealand for an intended absence of less than 12 months. |
Permanent and Long-term (PLT) Arrivals
| Permanent and long-term arrivals include overseas migrants who arrive in New Zealand intending to stay for a period of 12 months or more (or permanently), plus New Zealand residents returning after an absence of 12 months or more. |
Permanent and Long-term (PLT) Departures
| Permanent and long-term departures include New Zealand residents departing for an intended period of 12 months or more (or permanently), plus overseas visitors departing from New Zealand after a stay of 12 months or more. |
| Country of Main Destination | The country the person will spend the most time in while overseas. |
| CLNPR | Country of last/next permanent residence. This is the country where the person last lived (for arrivals), or will next live (for departures), for 12 months or more. |
| Port of Embarkation/Disembarkation | This is the overseas port where the passenger embarked a flight arriving in New Zealand, or was to disembark a flight departing New Zealand. It is not necessarily the initial source or final destination of the flight or the passenger. |
Contact Details
Liability
Statistics New Zealand gives no warranty that the information or data supplied contains no errors. However, all care and diligence has been used in processing, analysing and extracting the information. Statistics New Zealand shall not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by the customer consequent upon the use directly, or indirectly, of the information supplied in this product.
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